The Worlds Collide T-Shirt

If ever there was a sport that deserved treatment by the great Mad Magazine artist, Don Martin, cyclocross was it. It was once written that if a tree fell in a forest, Don Martin would know what it sounded like. Martin is long gone, but his many sound effects, pratfalls, goofy expressions and zest for the quirks of humanity will live on forever.

Greg Leibert, a former teammate and gifted graphic artist better known to friends and family as G$ (say “gee money”), is in all likelihood the only artist I’ve ever known who has the requisite sense of the zany to channel the spirit of Don Martin for this little project. And let me just say that researching the style of Martin, recalling the bent feet, the hang of the tongue, the light in the eyes, well, it’s a pretty cool job benefit. Getting this thing just right wasn’t easy, either. This has been in the works for a good six years. But finally.

Martin is undoubtedly the only artist who could have conjured the many sounds that a rider makes as he pedals, runs or stumbles through mud. As to the reason for this shirt, there’s no other form of cycling in which our skills are as frequently—and hilariously—at odds with the outcome as with cyclocross. ‘Cross is also, quite arguably, the only time we’re allowed to chuckle when a rider falls, if only because many (most) falls in ‘cross don’t actually result in injury.

The shirt is only $20, just like our other T-shirts.

The shirt should be printing first week of December and shipping in the second week of the month, so if you’re in the U.S., it will arrive in time for Christmas, if perhaps not all the other holidays. We will be stocking the shirt in black, but if you preorder by the end of the day Thursday, November 30th, you will have a choice of white or gray, in addition to the black. Also, should you want an XS, XXL or a child’s size, this will be your chance to order those as well, as we won’t be stocking them.